Looking into investing some of your cash in an ICO (initial coin offering)? The crowdfunding events that let you purchase companies’ digital tokens can be lucrative, but they’re also incredibly risky.

One risk involved is the very real possibility that the tokens you purchase simply lose value compared to the ICO price. Some projects die; others get stalled for months and years, and some were just never very good to begin with.

But there are other types of risks. Since ICOs typically involve moving ether — the currency of Ethereum, which is the platform for the vast majority of ICOs — you could easily make a mistake there. Or you could just be phished or otherwise swindled out of your digital funds. Read more…